The Love of My Life

The love of my life makes me smile, makes me sigh with happiness, and oftentimes takes my breath away. Yes, that's right-- my beloved Diet Coke.



I have had a love affair with this delicious beverage since my childhood trips to the beach every summer. It was the only time we were allowed to drink pop. Then when I moved out to college, I went crazy. Ask any of my old roommates-- cans of diet coke in the trash, on the couch, under my bed, in my backpack, etc.

Fast- forward ten years (man, I'm old!), it is a full-blown addiction. Sadly (and probably wisely), Lance has organized an intervention. I am drastically cutting back on my diet coke consumption-- one 24 pack per month. That's less than one a day! (For those of you who can't do basic arithmetic). I have never been very good at the "moderation" thing. I have already been through 16 cans in the last week.

I will pay for it later. Wish me luck.

DONE!

There is a point every year where you can sit back and enjoy the season with no incomplete tasks hanging over your head. Generally, this happens for me around the 24th of December. This year, it is today! The gifts are purchased, the cards are out, the packages sent, the presents under the tree. Yay! Over the last few weeks, I have done the following:

1. Made 20 pound cakes for the Relief Society sisters
2. Made 75 bookmarks for the new Relief Society manual
3. Made pasta salad for 50 hungry sisters
   
4. Sent out 60 Christmas cards (a first for this lazy family)
5. Impatiently stood by my mailbox each day waiting for my online purchases to arrive
6. Sent a package to Alpine, Utah
   
7. Sent a package to Prague
   
8. Waited in line for 45 minutes at the post office to achieve #'s 4,6, and 7
9. Thought it would be best to shop at night after the kids were asleep, as to avoid the crowds
10. Fought the mall (and by "mall" I mean Wal-Mart) crowds at night after the kids were asleep-- seems everyone had the same brilliant idea to shop at night
    

Yesterday morning, an old beat-up black Nissan Sentra pulled up to my house and a big, dread-locked, face-tatooed man knocked on my door.

I answered timidly, "yes?"

"Package for you," he says gruffly.

I look down and see the most dilapidated package you have ever seen. It was like the Seinfeld episode where Jerry refuses to sign for his package-- only to have his Uncle Leo do it. I wouldn't even touch it. I was contemplating how much my refusal of this package would anger the scary man at my door, when I saw that it was sent from the Czech Republic. I happily signed for it.
Mom and Dad, I am not sure what kind of postal service you employed to get the package here, but it was a far cry from the friendly UPS men who have frequented the house these past few weeks. Either way, we are excited to see the presents from the Prague Christmas markets.

So, it is done! Here is a picture of our tree and all the presents underneath. (Go ahead and make fun of our pathetic, sparse, fake tree-- everyone else does.) Only one week to go!

The Kids

I don't want to be one of those people who blog only about their perfect children. I have no such children. However, I am so happy with Zoie and Tobin today that I have to have one "brag post. " After this I will go back to poking fun at my kids--like every good mom should. Promise.

Zoie and Tobin have so much fun together- they make my job easy (sometimes). I hesitate to write this, as I am sure to jinx the whole operation, but they really are best friends. Zoie has yet to show any jealousy whatsoever toward Tobin. In fact, whenever I try to have "Mom and Zoie" time, she wants to go wake Tobin up and play with him. Its an ego-buster to be sure-- but I love it. Tobin saves his biggest grins for her. He is a good sport and puts up with her wrestling him to the ground on an hourly basis.

Now, I am sure that some of you more experienced moms are laughing at my naivete. The fighting will no doubt come soon. And I am already preparing myself for the day when they will gang up against me. For now, I couldn't be happier with these little monsters.

Day at the Park

I had to document that on December 12th, my daughter played at the park in a tank top. I am a Florida girl through and through, but come on! Its ridiculous, right? I'm not crazy enough to wish for snow, but I'd love to be wearing jeans and a hoodie right about now.

Tobin has moved on to an umbrella stroller. Zoie took this as a sign that he is now her "responsibility". She pushes her dolls around in an umbrella stroller, and she is only too happy that Tobin now falls into that category.








We meet friends at the park every Wednesday morning. Zoie looks forward to it all week. She is usually extremely social, but since the new stroller development, she ignores all of her friends and spends the entire time with Tobin. She even found a way to get him up onto the playground equipment.

Tobin loves the excitement of all the crazy kids. When I put him in the swings, he laughs so loud. I wonder where he gets such a loud laugh from...

The Rasmussens...Simpson Style

We've been "Simpson-ized"! I saw this on a friend of a friend's blog. I thought it was appropriate for our family-- being the Simpson fans that we are. The website for those interested is www.simpsonizeme.com You upload a picture of yourself and it makes you a Simpson's character. Its like a dream come true!

Lance

Kira

Zoie



Tobin

Its Christmas Time!

I absolutely love the pre-Christmas excitement. I am not one of those people who is annoyed by the commercialization of the holiday. I revel in it. I may be in the minority on this, but I don't believe that twinkling lights and dancing Santas and obnoxious Christmas songs take away from the spiritual nature of Christmas. I think the decorated stores and Christmas music increase good will and happy dispositions in the general public. I know they do for me. This weekend we have spent hours doing the following:

• Untangling lights
• Draping every stationary item both inside and outside in said lights
• Picking out the cheapest fake tree we could find
• Waiting in line at Old Time Pottery for 45 minutes to purchase the aforementioned tree
• Online shopping
• Perusing the Goodwill for the gaudiest, tackiest Christmas sweaters ever made
• Tearing apart the house in pursuit of my Andy Williams Christmas album (in vain)
• Taking Christmas card pictures in ugly sweaters

I will post pictures of our decorated house soon. In the meantime, here is an outtake of our Christmas card photo shoot.



In this one, Lance says he looks like the fat Baldwin brother. (Please note that he is wearing a woman's sweater!)

Thanksgiving 2007

Turkey Day this year was a blast. It was very relaxed and untraditional... and I loved it! I have never been a fan of holidays spent with crowds of distant relatives, making small talk with people you only see once a year. Since we had no parental figures around this year, we decided to do it our way.

We kicked off the day with a little exercise. I ran a 5k down at the beach with my friends. The Tampa Bay Turkey Trot has become a Thanksgiving tradition amongst me and my friends. It was my first race of the season and my time was a little slow, but we had fun. I am training for a half- marathon and will post my progress (or lack thereof).

Lance played in the ward Turkey Bowl-- a four hour event this year! He was pronounced Turkey Bowl MVP at his Elders' Quorum meeting today. (I'm so proud). As you can imagine, we have both been a little sore this weekend.

We had my sister Heidi and our good friends, Jared and Brittany Filetti (and kids), over for dinner. The Filettis deep fried the turkey and I will not ever go back to traditional turkey again. Even the leftovers are delicious! We had way too much food and even more pies (six pies for 5 adults!) It was my first time hosting Thanksgiving.

After dinner, we all lay in a food stupor watching a Dirty Jobs marathon. If you haven't seen the show, its hilarious! Nothing compliments a full stomach like watching men clean out sewage facilities.

We missed our families on Thanksgiving, but it was an awesome day. We have spent the remainder of the weekend decorating for Christmas. It doesn't get any better than this!