Margot Jean is here!

8 lbs 13 oz, 21 inches long

Sweetest thing you've ever seen? Yes.

The best date I ever went on.

I have a friend who has a hilarious blog, Dopes I've Dated, where she tells stories of all the terrible dates she's been on. Its awesome, because I have quite a few stories like that too. But I'm going the opposite direction tonight.

This is the story of the most fun I ever had on a date. As you might guess, I went on this date with my now hubby, Brandon. We probably got married because this date was so awesome. It was the beginning to our love.

Brandon and I met a few days after he got home from his mission in Oct. 2007. This was actually our first official date. We had hung out several times before this night, and were actually already an item by this point, but we had never been on a meet-your-parents, pick-you-up-at-7, buy-you-dinner type of date.

It was close to Halloween, so Brandon invited me to go with him to the Haunted Castle of Muskogee (oh yeah, you wish you lived on Oklahoma now), for their yearly halloween festival. The Castle of Muskogee is basically a huge castle/medieval village in the town of Muskogee. Hence the name.

Here you go:

They have a huge renaissance fair there every year, and sell millions of fireworks at 4th of July. But at Halloween, there is a haunted house/pumpkin patch/hayride/petting zoo/anything else halloweeny they could think of.

Brandon picked me up and met some of my family for the first time. My older sisters happened to be visiting and I think all their kids were running around like banshees; my mom made small talk, and my dad jokingly asked Brandon why he would want to take me out and then got in trouble for it. We then headed out.

We drove Brandon's little truck, and held hands on the way. Muskogee is a good 45 minute drive from my parent's house, so we had plenty of time to talk and flirt to our heart's content. We talked about his mission and our families, I remember telling Brandon about my past speeding tickets and he told me about the truck he drove in high school. I remember feeling so at ease, even though we had not been dating long. Being with him was easy and comfortable, right from the beginning.

We got to the Castle and hiked about a mile from the truck to the entrance (friday nights are busy at the Castle) and headed inside. The Castle is pretty big, and they want to keep it really family friendly, so there are lots of different attractions, ranging in scariness. There's the Pumpkin Kingdom pumpkin patch and Halloween Land trick or treating for kids, and then there's the Haunted Hayride for pre-teen girls and other medium scare lovers, and then there's the Domus Horrificus, the scariest attraction they have. It's a walk-through haunted house full of creepers from horror films. Terrifying, the sign said. (The website even has the name written in bright red drippy blood font.) So we decided to take our chances and get good and scared.

We waited in line for a good 20 minutes, and expectations were high. We could hear the sound of chainsaws and people screaming inside, and everyone who walked out at the end were clutching each other's arms in giggly fear. We finally entered the house and were immediately disappointed. There was a 16 year old with zits and a squeaky voice dressed up as a dead guy, complete with red-colored corn syrup on his shirt. Really? This is supposed to make me pee my pants in terror? Every person who jumped out at us was some high-schooler in bad makeup saying scripted lines from movies. We laughed quite a bit.

We left the haunted house clutching each other's arms, not in fear, but to hold each other up from laughing too hard. It was so fun. We then went on a walk around the Castle, just holding hands and talking. I remember thinking that it was nice just to talk, and Brandon was so cute. I kept getting butterflies in my tummy when he would hold my hand and when he gave me his jacket because I got cold.

We left the Castle and drove back to Broken Arrow, where Brandon got hungry. So we stopped at Braum's and he ordered a Jalapeno Jack Cheeseburger; I got a shake. This was all that Brandon had planned for our date, but we didn't want to go home yet. So we drove down the street to my elementary school, and we played on the playground for a while. It was so fun, just the two of us, seeing who could jump the farthest from the swings (I won).

It was starting to get late, so Brandon took me home. My sisters and mom were still awake and we giggled like 13 year olds for at least an hour as I told them about my night.

It wasn't an expensive date, and the haunted house was terrible. But I had a blast, because it was the most original date I'd ever been on. Dinner and a movie gets old after a while. Plus, Brandon was smart and funny and really attractive, and had spent the night getting to know me. I could tell that he was really interested in what I was saying, and not just going out with me because I was cute. He was the epitome of a gentleman.

4 years later and I still remember our first real date with a smile, I think I started really falling in love with Brandon that night.

what a ham

Portia, playing with Aunt Carrie's hat.

manicure, anyone?

I love OPI nail polish. The shades are all really pretty, and the names of the polishes are awesome. Here are some of my favorites:

Extra-va-vaganza from the Burlesque collection

Mermaid Tears from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection

Banana Bandanna

Show It and Glow It from the Burlesque collection

Shimmery Chic

Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees in Suede

Remember when I wasn't pregnant?

Because i don't.

Fall!

Today Brandon and I took Portia to the park for a walk, in an attempt to induce labor (so far, nothing). It was pretty chilly, and it reminded me how much I really like autumn! I love hot chocolate and pie and soup, I have some really cute fall clothes that I'm excited to wear, and autumn has the best holidays.

Seriously, Halloween: dress up as whatever you want and eat pounds of candy. Portia and Margot are going to be really cute this year. Get ready!

Thanksgiving: spend the day with your family, stuffing yourself silly with turkey and cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes and pie and relish trays!! (I have a serious love for relish trays, it's almost creepy.)

For your enjoyment:

Death Star, pumpkin style

aaaaand E.T.

i am embarrassing

It's true. There are many things about me that are pretty embarrassing. But we're just discussing one of them today.

I am really excited. The new season of America's Next Top Model starts tonight. I love America's Next Top Model. LOVE. I've seen every episode of every season, most of them multiple times. Go ahead, judge me if you must. But let me just explain why I love this show so much.

The drama. Every episode has some stupid girl crying because some other stupid girl said her knees looked weird. Or she's crying because she's under a lot of stress because the judges said her photos "need some work". Or she may be crying because they are cutting her hair. Someone cries in every episode. It's hilarious.

Also, Tyra Banks is insane. Seriously.

Portia and I just watched this

It's pretty hilarious.

I never realized it before,

but the Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated building is shaped like Ferb's head.

See?

Awesome.

Can we just talk about how cute Portia is?

I ran across these on our computer today, they're from Brian's graduation a few months ago.

Look at my kid. She's adorable.

Ok, I've decided that I'm not really all that biased, she really is the cutest little girl ever.

and we have now reached the end of my sanity.

Last night was a doozy. The rest of the weekend was lots of fun. But last night was where my brain lost it's will to survive. I'll back up a bit for clarity's sake.

We spent the weekend in Claremore for Brian's missionary farewell. He leaves tomorrow for the MTC , then its off to New Zealand!! We are so excited for him and so blessed to have the experience of having a missionary in the family!

Yesterday was his farewell talk and open house, and the day started off pretty normal. Portia had been running a fever a bit the day before, but yesterday morning, she ate breakfast and acted fine as we got ready for church. It was at church that all the magic happened.

As sacrament meeting started, Portia sat very quietly and still. Usually she doesn't really sit quietly and still. I thought "Maybe it's because church is at a different time than normal and she's in a different place. I'm not going to complain." A few minutes later, Brian began his talk (and did wonderfully) and Portia wanted nothing more than to sit on my lap and snug. She really doesn't do that, especially not in church. She tried to fall asleep several times, and when her baby sister started kicking her from the inside, I handed Portia to Brandon. She snugged daddy for the rest of Sacrament meeting, and we realized that we were probably going to have to leave church early. She obviously wasn't feeling well.

As the closing prayer ended, Brandon stood up, still holding Portia in his arms. Then she threw up. All over Brandon. ALL OVER HIM. It was really bad. He ran out of the chapel and to a bathroom, cleaned her and himself up as much as possible, and we left.

The rest of the day, Brandon and I took turns taking care of Throw-up McGee and helping to get ready for the open house. It was then that I started to feel some teeny tiny contractions. I am now 37 weeks along, and dropped a few days ago, so naturally I thought that this was the very beginnings of labor. I was a little excited; maybe I was finally finished with being pregnant! But at the same time, I was a bit nervous because we were a 2 hour car ride away from my doctor and hospital. My stress level was a-climbing.

The open house was a lot of fun, and had a great turnout. There are a ton of people who love Brian! The house was packed, and I spent most of my time outside on the back porch, in varying levels of discomfort. Portia started to act like she was feeling better, and ate a bit of fruit. The worst was behind us, or so we thought.

We hung out for a few more hours, and it was time to head home. As we loaded up the car, Portia fell asleep and I mentally prepared myself for possibly delivering my own child while driving down the highway. We drove for about 20 minutes and were about to leave Tulsa, when Portia threw up yet again. It was worse than during church. Brandon hurried and pulled over at a gas station, and we spent the next hour trying to clean the carseat and child with just baby wipes and paper towels. We got everything as clean as possible, and started on the road again, and I lost it. I started bawling.

I was so tired and stressed, and I couldn't believe this was happening to me. How on earth was I going to take care of a sick baby while giving birth to another one on the side of the highway?!? I cried for quite a while and Brandon told me everything would be fine. I started to calm down; he was right. Portia would feel better after a good night's rest, we had plenty of time to get home before I started really laboring.

My almost-contractions had started to slow down, and I was finally starting to relax when the highway patrolman pulled us over. I lost it again. He pulled us over because one of our headlights doesn't shine right and sometimes looks like it's out. The poor guy walked up the the car and took one look at me and probably wanted to quit his job. I was bawling again, mascara flowing, not even trying to be discreet. He immediately let us off with a warning and sprinted back to his car. Brandon calmed me down again, and back on the road we went. We finally got home, bathed Portia and ourselves (we smelled pretty bad), and went to bed.

We fell asleep before our heads hit the pillow, it was quite the adventure.

And to top it all off, I never really went into labor.

this is really exciting

yes.

This is what Google looks like today.

best parts of the movie

"Yo, Stacy! Talk to me, talk to me, talk to me babay!"

"Hey don't give me that attitude guys, I'm doing it all for you!

(please ignore the repetition of this video)

"Beat it doofus!!"

Bigfoot

i2i