Really?

For fun I am constantly looking at homes. No we aren't looking for one, but I'm always amazed with how ugly people decorate and I like finding the most awkward but unique houses. Today I came across this one and nearly died laughing. I mean seriously, would you really put your house up for sale looking like this? Let me know what you think..........
http://arkansashouseview.com/viewhome.asp?MLS=10181768

Dang Birds

So if you ever read my survey I mentioned in there that I had a new fear of birds. I wouldn't say I'm as scared as Kathleen but I just don't like them. Well there has been this possessed bird hanging around our house. Joe said a couple of weeks ago he was just staring out the window and this bird just kept watching him. So Joe being the little kid that he is just kept walking back in forth in front of the window to see what this bird was going to do. The bird eventually flew up to the window and pecked on the window 2 times and then flew off. And then every time we pull into the driveway it's always on the roof watching us. Well on Thursday I took the day off and I knew that the lawn needed to mowed but I really didn't want to do but around 11:30 I got the urge to just go do it so it would be done and Joe wouldn't have to do it when he got home. So I mowed the front and then I went on to the back. Well there is one tree in our backyard and to mow around it you have to duck and mow underneath. Around the 4th time of me going underneath that dang bird freakin pecked on my head twice in the same spot. I was startled when it happened and I just put my hand on the top of my head and looked back thinking "what the heck was that?" There was no tree limb hanging down or anything so I know it was that dang bird! When I got inside I called and texted everyone I knew, including Kathleen, to tell them about my bird pecking experience. Now at least once a day I tell Melanie and Joe "A bird freaking pecked on my head"! We all still laugh about it but I wasn't laughing when it happened.

4th of July

I failed and didn't take any pictures of the 4th but we had so much fun. Melanie and I both took off work the Thursday before to enjoy a 4 day weekend and to get things ready for our exciting 4th or boating and fishin! When Joe got home from work Thursday night we ate dinner, packed up the truck, picked up Adam, and headed to Melanie's parents house to spend the night. The next morning we woke up, ate a dang good breakfast, packed up and headed out to lake Quachita to do us some boatin and fishin! I haven't been fishin since I was probably 11 and I love it so much so I was extremely excited. Well on the way to the lake I realized that I had left my fishin license at the house so we went to wal-mart to try and get another one but I didn't have my drivers license either so I just decided to fish anyway because I did have one just not with me. When we got the lake and got the boat off the trailor Joe couldn't figure out how to turn the boat on. (Were not that dumb, it wasn't our boat so we had to figure everything out on our own). Joe was right in the way of everyone trying to load or unload and again couldn't get the boat started so he had to pull out the ore and paddle to shore. Melanie and I were laughing our heads off. We wish we would have had our cameras but Adam had just left with the truck which had our cameras.

Once we got out on the lake it was so pretty. It was busy but the nice thing about that lake is it has a bunch of coves that you can go into and be on your own. When we first started it was so blasted hot outside. Seriously, outrageously hot and unbearable so we decided to take a dip. I was the only smart one to bring a floaty so I obviously lasted longer in the lake. Since it was a fishin boat though it was pretty funny watching everyone trying to get back into the boat. Melanie won the prize for most uncoordinated. After our dip we decided to pull out the fishin poles. While we were working on getting them ready we noticed that it was starting to get cloudy and looked like it was going to storm but we didn't care we were determined to fish. We started fishin and it started raining, so we moved and tried again and again it started raining. Except, for this time there was lightning and thunder right above us so again we moved for our 3rd time. We finally got to a spot where it looked like the storm had past and we were able to fish for a good while. Joe came the closet to catching a fish. He was reeling it in and the last moment the fish unhooked itself. We all said none of us were leaving until atleast one of us caught one but the storm came back and with a vengeance so we had to head back with no fish. We loaded back up and headed home. Even though we didn't catch anything we still had alot of fun.

When we got home I gave the boys haircuts and then we all got ready and my awesome parents had gone to the store for us and came over with all the food and we had our own little bbq. My dad picked out some mean burgers and they were amazing. Joe, Melanie, and Dad got there brauts and I got my guacamole that I love so much now. My mom made a way good fruit salad (I was making it but I was scaring Mom and Melanie with the way I was cutting the fruit). After we ate we grabbed some big blankets and headed over to the country club and sat on the golf course and watched the firework show. I have never like firework shows but for some reason this year I really enjoyed them. My favorite were the goldish sparkly ones. I'm not a fan of the colored ones. When the firework show was over just layed on the golf course until the sprinklers came on. We had perfect weather that night and I was the only fortunate one not to get eatin alive by chigers.

It's the new Celeste

This is kind of following my previous blog. I have been told my whole life how picky of an eater I am. I haven't ever really cared until Melanie moved in with us. She seriously likes the nastiest things. Well I realized that a lot of the things I was saying I didn't like I had not actually tried most of them so here lately I have been trying really hard to try EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING. We started out with guacomole. I had tried it before but didn't like it, but when I was in California I thought I would give it another try and now I pretty much can't stop craving it and I try to eat it at least once a week. It's pretty much the best thing I have ever had. Then I tried Mahi Mahi at a restaurant here called mickey's. It was really good. The next thing was egg plant which I ended up Loving! Then I tried Talapia (fish). It was pretty much amazing. I don't know if it was because of the fish or because Melanie smothered it in butter and Parmesan. Either way I really liked it. Then we went to a hibachi grill and I got the guts to try a California roll. My whole family is OBSESSED with sushi and Melanie too so I thought eh what the heck I'll just try it. It took me about 2 minutes to contemplate on what I was doing and then I just stuck the whole thing in my mouth because that's what I was told to do. It was pretty much the nastiest thing I have ever had. Uh, the taste is beyond describable. I can honestly say that I hate California rolls. That same night I got a piece of shrimp with my meal so I thought instead of giving this to Joe I'm just gonna try it because the only shrimp I've tried is cocktail shrimp and I didn't like that. But this one was marinated and cooked and it was REALLY good. I can say that I don't like biting into it. It kind of makes me sick thinking about it but the taste is really good. Anyway, that's all I've tried and that was in almost a period of one week so I thought I did pretty good. I'll keep you updated on more things that I try.

AMAZING

Last week we all made it a goal to not eat out and actually cook more then just quesedillas and lean cuisine's. Well ever since Melanie moved in she has been trying to get me to try new and weird things. She calls me picky and I call her food snob. She is so funny when it comes to food. She knows all of these fancy dishes with fancy names and she is so particular about how food is prepared. Me and Joe we just live off of quesadillas, quesadillas, and more quesadillas. Anyway, one of her main things she's been trying to get me to try is egg plant Parmesan. I pretty much have refused mainly because of the word "egg plant". It just does not look or sound appealing. Well when we went grocery shopping the other day we were trying to think of all the dishes we knew that we could make. She just looked at me and said "I can't think of any that you would like". So I said "what do you want to make" and she said "egg plant parmesan". With a big sigh I told her I would "TRY" it. Then I started asking about 15 questions about how egg plant tasted and what it was like. She finally told me it tasted like squash and zucchini. When she said those two things she had me sold. That's all I needed to hear. So we got our groceries and came home and she made us dinner. First she cut the "egg plant" and then she smothered it in egg and then she put it in a bowl with baked bread crumbs and then placed them on a cookie sheet. She baked them and when they were done she put store bought tomato and basil spaghetti sauce and sprinkled mozzarella cheese on top and put it back in the oven just until the cheese melted. Then when that was done we ate it over angel hair pasta and spaghetti sauce. It was pretty much the most AMAZING thing I have ever had. And it looked easy and took seriously 15 to 20 minutes.

California Slide Show

California Fun

So I'm a little late on this post but better late then never. Last month Joe and I had the opportunity to take our first week of paid vacation since we've been married without having to worry about anyone calling us from work. It was AMAZING! We flew out to California to see my whole family. Yes, it happened again in less then a year. The whole Martindale family was able to get together. It doesn't ever happen so we definitely try to take advantage of it. Joe and I arrived on a Tuesday night while everyone else arrived the next night. That Wednesday before everyone arrived Ryan was kind enough to let us take his car out to drive around Cali. Thank goodness Joe knows LA because he got to drive me around all of LA. I got to see a part of where he served his mission. He couldn't take me into to his main areas because he served in Compton and those bad areas. But just a piece of advice if you've never been it's not at all what you would think. I think it was cool seeing where things are filmed and all of that but for the most part LA is pretty dirty and old. That night when everyone arrived we talked about our plans to go to disneyland the next day. I know i'm a total debby downer when it comes to theme parks but i'm not a huge fan nor was I excited to go but everyone was doing it (haha). So Thursday morning we all got ready and surprisingly we were out the door by 10:45, I think. As we arrived we stepped out of the car and felt a cool breeze that made us all wish we hadn't worn shorts and short sleeve shirts but we all agreed that we would rather be cold then hot and then off we went to Disney land. As soon as we got in of course we were all hungry so we had lunch and then headed off to the rides. Us kids with no kids split from the others and went and rode some rides. We started out with Indiana Jones which I was like having an anxiety attack before we went because I didn't know what kind of ride it was. I really was so scared. It obviously turned out to be a way fun ride. When we got it we noticed people were wet coming in and we thought to ourselves, oh please don't be raining. Well sure enough it was raining and there was stop to it. It rained for the next 3 hours that we were there. I don't know mean just sprinkle. It was pretty much a down poor. I tried to have a good attitude but after 3 hours of FREEZING and raining I was no longer in a good mood. Some how we all ended up at space mountain and the boys all left to ride the ride (including my dad) and I was stuck there with the crying kids. No offense to them, I think I would have been crying to because they were seriously soaked and freezing but I had had my fun by then and was not happy to be there when I really didn't want to go in the first place. The boys had fun riding the ride and it made my dad pretty sick for the rest of the day. But we ended it with that ride. When we finally got back to the car Ryan turned to Joe and said "you know it only rained because Celeste really didn't want to come". I think he was right. I guess i'll have to try it out again when it's not raining. Well the rain pretty much lasted for most of the time that we were there. It was kind of a bumber but Joe and I still had fun just being with the family. The Saturday that we were there was my birthday. As most of you know I am like a little kid on my birthday. It is pretty much the most important day to me. I don't know why I get so excited but I do. I was more excited this year because it had been 16 years since I had been with my whole family for my birthday. My mom made me fruit pizza and we ate tacos for dinner. It was amazing! Everyone ended up leaving on Monday and Joe and I stilled had till Wednesday to party it up so that Monday we decided to go and ride bikes along side the beach. They have this side walk that goes on forever. It was really neat. We tried to rent bikes from one bike store but they were about to close so they told us of a different one. So we went there and they said all they had were the tandem bikes (two seater's). I told Joe we had to do that! I mean how often do you get to ride on a tandem bike. Well off we went. I got to see all kinds of things. It was alot of fun. On our way back we went through Venice beach and there they have all these stands of people selling things. For forever I have wanted a henna tattoo and what better time to get one then in Venice Beach. So we found one where there weren't creepy guys working it and I picked out my design and he got it done in like seriously 1 min. I loved it! I was so glad that we got to do that. The next day we shopped a bit and then hung out because by that point of the week we were exhausted from staying up late and waking up early. The last day that we were there we wanted to go to breakfast somewhere on the beach. Ryan was so nice and looked up a place for us in Malibu where we went and you literally sat on the sand by the beach and ate your breakfast. It was the best way to end our trip. We had so much fun and Ryan and Jane were troopers letting all 15 of us stay at there house and letting us drive there cars. We will never forget that trip.

I Feel Loved

Thanks for tagging me Britney!

Here's how to play: List 3 joys, 3 of your fears, 3 of your goals, 3 current obsessions/collections and 3 random, surprising facts about yourself. At the end of your post, tag more people.

3 Joys:
1. Spending my Saturdays getting the lawn mowed and getting all of our projects done. I feel a great relief when I do. I also love spending my Saturdays with Joe because that's really the only time I get to see him.
2. Lately I've been really interested in EVERYTHING! I want to ask about how everything works, why it works, and how it works. I think it just comes with going into my job and not having a single clue of what I was getting into. I did learn not to ask Katie and Colby my questions because the only answer they gave me was "google it"
3.I really like having Melanie live with us. It's nice having a 3rd opinion until she gives me the one I don't want which is usually most of the time.

3 Fears
1.I have an extreme fear of being tickled especially my feet. I feel like my body is being paralyzed and my hands and feet start sweating. Infact, my hands and feet are sweating right now just thinking about it.
2. I am PETRIFIED of sleeping in my house by myself. I have a pretty sick imagination and I think of everything bad that could happen to be me before and during my sleep.
3. I have a new fear of birds. When I was in California most of the restaurants are outside and they seriously just fly right past you or they eat around your feet.

3 Goals
1. To lose 8 pounds by Aubrey's wedding. Joe and I have a bet and if I do it then I get this ring I really want.
2. I want to be able to explain things better and have people actually understand me
3. To stand up for myself better and not bottle things up. I want to be more like Nichole. I really do look up to people that can handle situations without getting emotional and saying the wrong things.

3 current obsessions
1. Pink Berry. too bad I don't live by one
2. wearing hats
3. the color yellow

3 Random and surprising facts about myself
1. I hate doing laundry!
2. I love my truck!
3. Just because I have strong personality I am a shy person if I don't know you and if I'm in a uncomfortable situation. If I'm comfortable with you and if I know you I will be blunt, but for the most part I am shy person.

Only in Arkansas

We went and ate at Moe's yesterday and as we were leaving this is what we saw. This is for real too! If you can't read the sign it says "please do not disturb this bird she is nesting and needs no help"

Joe's 2nd degree burn

Ok so in my last post I mentioned that Joe had second degree burn on the top of his head but I didn't realize how bad it really was until he put his head down and all I saw was yellow spots all over. The poor guy! We read up on how to cure a 2nd degree burn but it pretty much said deal with it and don't touch it! So we went to church and about every 10 min Joe would turn to me and ask "is it running down"? And sure enough there was yellow nasty stuff running down his forehead. Just to let you know we didn't stay much longer. I brought him home and he is now laying on the couch with a cold rag on his head and I put lots of aloe vera on the rest of his face. I feel bad for him but were both frustrated that this happened two days before we leave for California. Oh well, we'll make it work.

P.S. dumb

I have heard all about the movie "P.S. I love you" so I have been so excited to watch it. Last night Melanie ordered it through red box and we watched it. I don't know if it was because I wasn't in a sappy mood or what but I thought the movie could not have been more dumb. The whole time I was watching it was thinking "I am so blogging about how dumb this movie is". I just didn't like the flow and it was just awkward. Don't worry though I wasn't the only one that didn't like it. None of the boys or Katie and Melanie liked it. Although Melanie was crying at one point but I couldn't help but laugh out loud at the corniness. I'm pretty critical of movies (I got that from my sister) so that may have been my problem but I don't recommend this movie to anyone.

Fort Smith Airshow

Yesterday we went to the air show with Katie and Colby. There boss is a col. there at the fort smith base and he gave them VIP passes to watch the show. They were kind enough to ask Joe and I to go. It was lots of fun and the weather was perfect. We sat out there watching the airplanes for 6 hours. Thank goodness Katie brought her sunscreen but we were stupid enough to just put it on our feet and then once we noticed we were burning after 5 hours of sitting outside it was too late and so here are our results (the pictures don't do justice as to how burn we really are)I burned on my one arm, and neck. Joe burned on the top of his head (which is now blistering due to 2nd degree burn), and face which he seriously looked like a tomato last night. I couldn't even look at him without laughing hysterically. Katie burned her arms, chest, and knees. And Colby burned his bottom legs and he got a little red on his face. It was all worth it though, watching Joe and Colby act like little boys talking about the airplanes and getting excited was priceless. Now we can't wait till the blue angels in Oct.

Look at the guy behind me. We couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl. what's your guess?

Cinco De Mayo

For YEARS I have wanted to have a Cinco De Mayo party so this year Melanie and I actually made it happen. We invited pretty much everyone we know over and had them all bring one thing and made a party out of it. Joe grilled some carne asada and we had some mean carne asada burrito things (can you tell i'm no mexican). We of course broke out the croquet and horse shoes as our entertainment and we just hung out had a good time. It was probably one of the funnest parties I've ever had. Better yet it was the only party i've ever had. Joe bought 7 pounds of carne asada so we are still eating it. So if your craving any meat come on over!

Aubrey's Engaged!

So most of you already know partly because it's taken me over a week to post this blog but she is officially engaged and will be married on August 1st 2008 in Salt Lake. I have been dreaming of this day my whole life. I just can't believe how grown up Aubrey has gotten. I remember as if it was yesterday her beating me with papers while we fought during our paper routes and her not sharing her crayons because she was saving them till next christmas. She has turned out to be a beautiful person inside and out. hahaha! Aubs you know I love ya! No really though Joe and I are so excited for her and we can't wait to meet this lover of hers. We have only seen pictures and heard great things about him. His name is Kyle and he is from somewhere in Idaho. (Idaho U da ho) He has brown hair......haha I'm all trying to act like I know him but I really don't. Anyway, we are excited and can't wait to make another trip this summer to see them get hitched.

Toad Suck Daze

The first weekend of May is Toad Suck Daze here in good ole Conway, Arkansas. Joe ran his first race ever in the Toad Suck 5k with our nephew and niece Cooper and Mckenna. They all did really well. They finished I think around 35 min. After the race Joe and I tried to get an early start on the actual Toad Suck Daze. We left our house around 10:45 am thinking we would beat the crowd but we didn't it was pretty packed already. We only go for our once a year cravings. I always get a funnel cake and a chocolate covered banana. As for Joe he loves him some fried twinkies. We only go for about 3o min. just for the food and then we leave. It was lots of fun and we can't wait for next year!

Our adventure hiking

A couple of Saturdays ago the weather was so pretty! Joe and I were excited and wanted to be outside all day. He had been begging me to go on a hike for months so I finally gave in. We went to subway and got some sandwiches and then I had the idea of maybe trying out a trail at Toad Suck that I thought would be more of my style of hiking. We got to Toad Suck and ate our sandwiches and then we were off for our adventure hike. We went up a hill and came down a hill and that was it.
Our waterfall

The beginning

The End

I was laughing hysterically because I remembered that being a lot longer. It seriously only lasted 2 min. Joe just looked at me and shook his head and then began to ask me if I would go to petite jean with him. I agreed in disgust because my trail let me down. I really thought I was being tricky and was going to get out of this big long hike. Obviously it didn't work. So we drove out to petite jean and when we got there I think all of Arkansas had the same idea as us because there were cars backed up for a good half a mile. I didn't have to say anything. Joe was sad but he couldn't stand the thought of being crowded on a trail with tons of people and neither could I so we found another trail called the Cave something and we did that instead. It turned out perfect, short & sweet, longer then 2 minutes, and Joe got to climb some big rocks. It doesn't get better then that. After that hike I told Joe that I had never been to Mt. Magazine. He insisted on taking me so off we went. We sadly got lost and didn't make it and then had to drive what felt like an eternity but really an hour and half home. When we got home we went and played tennis and then we crashed the rest the of the night. It was so much fun! Maybe we'll make it to the real hike someday.

Melanie turned 22!

Thursday was Melanie's birthday and boy did we celebrate. Ok not really. She had 2 finals that morning so we didn't celebrate until AFTER her finals. We invited a few people over and grilled out hot dogs and burned some chicken. Then we had the privilege of eating my homemade burnt crusted strawberry cheesecake. The cheesecake was good but it was 20 times better two days later. Melanie was shocked that I could make cheesecake from scratch. It was a special occasion. After eating we did the normal birthday stuff and Melanie opened her present. Yes I said that meaning one. haha. The night didn't last much longer until we were all exhausted and had to go bed. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MELANIE!

This is for you Dr. J

Friday I pretended to be Dr. Johnson as I did my first ultrasound on Dr. Martin. I couldn't help myself but to actually play the part. So here's to you Dr. J!

Nichole got a mini van

Nichole, a girl I work with, is your typical person that hates mini vans and she said she would never own one mainly because it's called a "mini van", I told her she could call it her SUV (Suped up Van). Well her car (honda accord) started having problems so she got to shopping. Today she called me and told me that she was a new owner of a Honda Odyssey. I'm more excited for her because we can pimp out in the "SUV" now.

p.s. Nichole you made my blog!

i'm a retard

I'm so amazed by my teeth that I keep clicking back and forth between the before and after picture. I LOVE the dentist!